Inform 14th April 2022

As we fast approach the Easter weekend, we appreciate you may be busier than normal managing your business. To support you during this period, please see below for where best to go to get the information you need to ensure you receive the best level of support.

Our current service levels

Before you submit an application to us, please review our current service levels published on our intermediary website and please consider the timelines to assess both Residential and Buy to Let cases – currently three working days – before you contact us for an update on a submitted case.

Barclays Intermediary HUB

For speedy answers to questions relating to either a new application or an update on an existing case, the HUB provides you with the quickest route to get all information.

• Instant Case update information is available via the summary of all your applications, within the ‘My Cases” tab located on the HUB home page and details of any outstanding case requirements can be obtained from the Case Requirements section of the specific application
• Once you’ve reviewed your case in the Hub, should you have any further questions, you can quickly and easily connect with our Livechat team who can provide immediate assistance

Barclays case booking system

As a general reminder, In an effort to maintain our service levels, we limit the number of new case bookings available each day so we can ensure a steady flow of applications into our operational teams.

The benefit to you and your clients, is that this allows us to manage peaks in demand without us having to unnecessarily withdraw or amend our products to achieve service stability.

Where it is necessary for us to make changes to our product range, it’s important to note that as long as the requisite steps have been taken prior to product withdrawal, you can still secure a rate that is communicated to be withdrawn, even if you have been unable to attain a case booking on the day the rate is withdrawn.

Important – case booking update

The limit on our case booking desk is currently being reached earlier in the day than normal so please see below for important information on how this impacts you and what you need to do:-

• Once reached, no further cases will be able to be booked that day, however, the daily limit will be refreshed overnight with new bookings available from the next day.
• For info: Updates are published in the Intermediary Hub in the event our daily limit has been reached
• If you have cases already ‘booked’ in the system, these are unaffected and can continue to be submitted, as can applications for existing Barclays mortgage customers.
• For rates being withdrawn, if you generated a MIS and saved the product in our application systems prior to withdrawal, you will still be able to submit on these products up until the last application date.
• You will require a case booking in order to submit an application, however, this can be completed at any point in time (subject to booking availability) right up until the last application date

Further guidance on how to secure a rate to be withdrawn is provided within our product change emails, including the last application dates by which time you need to have secured a booking and submitted the case.

Thank you again for your ongoing support.

We’ve diversified our lending portfolio by launching into the Furnished Holiday Let market for both UK and expat applicants. With the holiday let market continuing to grow, we want to be able to help support your clients with our simplified criteria and individual underwriting assessment.

We’ll accept both purchase and remortgage applications up to 70% LTV on an interest only or repayment basis (please note, we have a 60% LTV restriction on flats).

Read the full blog here.

Vida have recently enhanced their affordability criteria on their residential range, to provide more opportunity of home-ownership to your clients. 

Click here to view their latest affordability changes and case studies.

Is your client’s bridging loan nearing its term end, but they are not ready to exit?

Re-bridging, also known as refinancing, can be used to settle an existing bridging facility by taking out another loan. There are many reasons why this might be required, but most likely, it will be because the original loan term will stop before an exit through sale or longer-term finance is possible.

Whether it is a development that has stalled and requires additional funds to complete or an applicant who has been let down at the last minute by another lender and requires finance immediately, speak to Impact Bridging today.

Access a faster bridging solution, call the  Impact team on 01403 272625 or email bridging@impactsf.co.uk

Joint Borrower Sole Proprietor mortgages are where a mortgage is in joint names but home ownership rights remain with only one of the borrowers. This is particularly useful for enabling close family members to help a loved one onto the property ladder by contributing to mortgage payments without having any ownership rights.

Read the full case study here.

With a common-sense approach to portfolio cases, West One offer a safe pair of hands to help landlords maintain and grow their portfolio, by delivering finance in a smooth and timely fashion.

Our latest case study highlights the benefit of our individual approach to underwriting in successfully supporting portfolio landlords to grow their portfolio.

The Client

Our client was a portfolio landlord with 10 properties in his portfolio, aside from his property portfolio, he earns a gross annual salary of £12,400 as a sole trader in the music industry. The client has historic mortgage arrears from 2018 and rents their residential property.

The Situation

The client was looking to expand his portfolio by purchasing a 3-bed terraced house that was currently owned by a family member. The client already had 4 high street mortgages and over £1m in lending with another lender.

Our Solution

Unlike traditional high-street mortgage lenders, West One were able to get comfortable with the client’s situation. We look for the background portfolio to be at 100% rental cover, meaning we can focus on the property in question. The LTV was less than 70% on the background portfolio and the rental income would be 258% of the mortgage payments.

While some lenders will refuse to lend to an applicant that resides in a rental property, our common-sense approach meant that we were comfortable with the mortgage history from the applicant’s portfolio and his proof of rent payments. In addition, we did not require proof of income from the client as the DSCR was 168.14%.

The Result

At West One, all our cases are manually underwritten which means our team of experts will assess the risk of the case on an individual basis. In this case, despite there being historic mortgage arrears, as they had not taken place during the last 3 years, we did not need to take these into account and were able to proceed under our W1 product range.

Our common-sense approach to portfolio landlords meant that we were able to offer the client the required funds to complete the purchase and support the growth of the client. The borrower was delighted with the outcome and the fast and flexible service that West One delivered.

To discuss a case or register as an introducer please get in touch with the West One team here.

Looking after your Protection business is at the heart of what we do, and as a valued member of our business, we would like to introduce you to your New Partner First Service Team.

You’ll now have a dedicated telephone line and mailbox giving you immediate access to your team, providing a quick and convenient way to talk to us about your business. We’ve also introduced a dedicated support line for all your pre-sale underwriting enquiries.

Click here to download your handy guide containing all the contact details and information about the team and how it will work

Our pro-active approach is tailored to help speed up the application process and get your customer covered as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your support.

Welcome to our fifth edition of The Link. Our newsletter has been designed to reinforce our shared purpose through education, support, knowledge and tools.

In this inaugural edition, you’ll hear from Sir Nigel Wilson, our marketing development team and retention insights

We hope you enjoy. If there are any topics you’d like us to cover, or if you’d like to be interviewed for a future issue, please contact your usual account manager.

Read Now

CHL Mortgages further expands its product suite and criteria by launching a new product range for large Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) and Multi-Unit Freehold Blocks (MUFB), designed to cater for properties with 7 to 10 bedroom/units, so moving the lender further into the complex multi-unit/tenanted buy-to-let market.

This move follows the recent launch of the specialist lender’s 7-year fixed rate product range and is in addition to the lenders existing HMO & MUFB range which allows up to 6 bedrooms/units.

The new larger HMO/MUFB product range is available up to 75% LTV.

For HMOs, CHL Mortgages allow a maximum of 10 bedrooms with no limit on the number of lettable rooms. All types of HMO will be acceptable including licenced, C4 planning use, Sui Generis planning use as well as properties requiring alteration to sell as a family home.

For MUFBs, a maximum of 10 units in the block are allowed under the new product range, providing all units have separate services.

In relation to both HMOs and MUFBs, at least one applicant must be able to evidence that they currently own and have owned a Buy-to-let property for a minimum of two years.

www.chlmortgages.co.uk/intermediaries

Paymentshield are excited to announce that ALL their current GI Academy training modules are now officially CPD accredited. All 13 chapters will provide around 6.5 hours of learning towards your annual 15-hour CPD requirement.

The modules are also the first independently verified CPD courses for GI that are freely available to all UK financial advisers regardless of their preferred provider.

Current offerings

So why not take this time to dip back in and re-engage with some of the materials already in there?

Expand your knowledge on Paymentshield’s proposition including a detailed look into their Home Insurance and Landlord’s Insurance offerings and make sure you’re not missing out on any income by not offering your clients everything they need. You can also get to grips with their other products such as Mortgage Protection and Tenant’s Contents and explore the extra value it could be providing your clients.

Their latest module covers Adviser Hub and all its benefits including the quoting process, how to use My GI Book to get the most out of it and what you could be earning using the potential earnings calculator.

You can also explore the recent GI pricing practices and what it means for you using their dedicated module, with more regulatory changes modules coming soon

Test yourself

After you’ve browsed the modules, you can test your knowledge in the Test section. There are tests for each product including the additional tests relating to Paymentshield’s optional extra.

Explore GI Academy now